Jeff Graser's Networking TipTake a serious interest in others and do what you can to help.

​The biggest key to valuable networking is not only giving referrals, its thinking outside the box and helping in whatever ways pop into your head. In PERE, our members have promoted charity events, hosted community wide dinners, held happy hours open for all business people, and shown up on weekend hours to help each other with various crises.Helping is the heart of networking.Giving referrals in no small thing of course, as a professional you have to put yourself out there, so to speak, and work hard to earn them. A PERE meeting always includes ideas for our best referrals when we discuss our own businesses, and we are always checking in with each other to see how we can be involved.Within a close business community though, help often comes in the form of referrals to begin with, because most of the time the biggest challenges come from areas we don’t specialize in. We need assistance with bookkeeping, signage, phone systems, venue’s for events and a host of other details. So obviously just being able to say “I know a guy” is a great help and the heart of business networking.Taking a serious interest in others, and how you can help them, often leads to more than good referrals though. This happens a lot in PERE. When one of our members was organizing a charity dinner for her Cancer Nonprofit, most of us not only attended, we donated auction items, sold tickets and volunteered to help set up for the event. When one of our members was having problems with a potential leaky roof, a few of use came over on the weekend just to help. When a business group runs this long, making friends and having each other’s back is just what happens.Because simply put, we seriously are interested in helping.